The advent of numerous local and long distance telephone carriers has resulted in a wide selection of different carriers which have different telephone cost rates depending on the time of day, the number of phone calls, the location of a calling party and other factors. Typically, a consumer chooses one carrier, and maintains that carrier account for all long distance calling needs, and in some instances for local calls also. With increased competition among interstate, intrastate, interlata and intralata phone carriers, a caller could save money if different carriers are chosen for each particular phone call to a particular destination.
It has been known to design complex phones that route calls along selected switching points via selected tie lines to establish a least cost route. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,308 to Weinberger et al. discloses such a device. It has been found, however, that many consumers are unwilling to purchase a complex telephone device in substitution for the phone already used in the home. Typically, consumers buy a phone for aesthetic or economic reasons. Consumers have been found unwilling to purchase complex phone equipment in lieu of phones already purchased which are more simple, smaller and aesthetically pleasing to the eye.